My first music albums: The Partridge Family, Don McLean, ABBA

The other day I got to thinking about the first music albums I ever owned.
Most young people get albums from performers they’re later embarrassed to admit ever liking. I was no exception.
My first two albums were from the Partridge Family. I owned “The Partridge Family Album” (1970) and “Up to Date” (1971).
I grew up watching “The Brady Bunch” and “The Partridge Family,” which were on Friday nights on ABC in the early 1970s.
I had a crush on Susan Dey from “The Partridge Family” and was too naïve to know that she didn’t perform on any of the albums. Come on, how hard is it to sing background vocals and play the tambourine?
In the fourth grade, I loved “American Pie” (1971) by Don McLean. It was a new song then and played on the radio a lot. At 8 minutes and 33 seconds long, DJs probably put it on so they could take bathroom breaks. It was the only song I played off the album. Of course, now I can’t bear to hear it.
After that, I took a liking to Swedish “super group” ABBA, as Casey Kasem always called them. My girlfriend at the time gave me “ABBA the Album” (1977), which featured the songs “The Name of the Game” and “Take a Chance on Me.”
Now they’re popular again, thanks to the jukebox musical “Mamma Mia.”
Who would have guessed that way back when?